One of my favorite things to do is speak on college and university campus about sexuality. Whether it is a talk about safer sex, communication, anatomy, intersections of identities, inclusivity, kink 101, or a class on sexual activity, college students are some of my favorite learners to have in front of me.

However, sometimes it can be difficult for college students to figure out how to bring a sex educator to campus. Between working with various groups, communicating with the sex educator, and promotions/advertising, it can sometimes seem overwhelming for the one or two students, or even student groups looking to bring someone to speak.

Luckily, one of my awesome interns has put together an easy guide chock full of tips on how to bring a sex educator (such as myself) to your campus. As always, you can contact me if you’re interested in working together!

-Shanna

One of the things I get asked the most as a sex-educator-in-training and student organizer is,“how can we get someone like that to come to our school?” Luckily,I’ve done my share of organizing before (and have made enough mistakes!) and I can give you some general steps to getting that super awesome sex educator to your campus!

Start early (and ensure you get good seating)

When it comes to creating an event on campus,I’d say,the number one beginner’s mistake is not starting early enough. Unlike private events,or even organizational ones,university bureaucracy has a glacial pace – which will be worse if you are a state school,as you will have to jump through even more hoops in order to work with state regulations. Starting early ensures you will get the most help from your administration,and it also puts you in the best possible position for funding,which (at least at my school) is pretty freed up the first week of the semester and gobbled up not long after.

But we can’t limit this to just funding. You can be in an awesome position funding-wise,and it will not mean anything if you don’t have a good space to work with. The good meeting spaces tend to be reserved early,and you don’t want to get yourself stuck in that awkward classroom on the edge of campus just because that was the only place open. Having a central location will also help with passive advertising. What does that mean? An example:at my university,we had a couple of sex educators come to the student union,which gets tons of traffic that has nothing to do with specific events. People were able to see the posters about upcoming events,to be sure,but what captured a lot of attention was all the people lining up outside,and the groups tabling outside the event’s room. Because of this,we were able to attract a lot of people who were just wandering by.